Hopping and Dangling through Kamakura Valley to Hyakujoiwa

What?
The Kamakura Valley (鎌倉峡) was cut out from the surrounding landscape by the Funasaka River (船坂川). While there is no clear path, it’s possible to follow the river downstream, walking, hopping and dangling across the valley floor. During rainy periods I can imagine it too dangerous, but on a warm summer day it’s possible to cross the stretch without wet feet, and the river is clear enough to take a refreshing swim. Towards the end of the valley, sand stones and rocks rise steeply and majestically ( a vertical climb of 60 meters according to the sign) to form a small but impressive peak at Hyakujoiwa (百丈岩 292m).
Where?
Although very rural, the valley is part of Kobe (神戸市) in Hyogo Prefecture (兵庫県). The trail starts at Dojo Station (道場駅) on the JR Fukuchiyama Line (JR福知山線) which is weirdly enough better known as the JR Takarazuka Line (JR宝塚線), loops around flanked by some golf courses and follows the Funasaka River back in the direction of the station. The valley smoothly connects with the Hyakujoiwa peak from where the station is another 30 minute walk.
URL
Wikipedia

One picture in, my camera’s SD-card gave up on me. Let that be a reminder for me always to bring a spare… but for today, there was nothing for it; I’d have to use the rather mediocre camera of my smartphone.
But that didn’t spoil my fun.

I planned today’s hike as a kind of easy treat.
I had planned hikes-turned-into-weekends with a few of my work colleagues before, but I found it becoming harder and harder as everyone’s schedules became busier (family, promotion, transfer, …) and as everyone’s level of physical fitness became widely varied.
So when I chanced upon this hike I though it would be perfect. It’s not too long, it’s within an hour of everyone’s living area, there is barely any change of height in the terrain, and it follows a pristine stream giving any overheated person the opportunity to take a refreshing dive.

Getting off the train, my suspicion of an easy hike – let’s call it a walk – was confirmed by a group of elderly hikers making the last preparations before heading out. In hindsight though, I’m pretty sure they took another course.
Personally, I found today’s route a great heap of fun. From the station to the actual start of the hike, we passed through beautiful rice paddy’s and if you could just ignore the highway for a moment, this rural landscape was a perfect start for a stroll. There were two stretches of steep stairs, but they didn’t even take up 5 minutes of our time. When the road seemed to turn into a dead-end, a small path on the left of a big fence indicated the course we were planning to walk. A sign ominously stated “for advanced hikers”.
The route started out as a small but pretty forest path without any elevation change. This path continued until we hit a small river which we were supposed to follow right up until we’d make a short climb for the peak of Hyakujoiwa.
It’s here where the “advanced” part begins, as there isn’t much of a path to speak of.
Sometimes there are short stretches of easy to walk paths, but most of the time you advance by hopping on boulders, keeping your balance thanks to ropes and continuously hopping from one river bank to the other to check which had the clearest way to continue.
As I said, I personally had great fun. I felt like a child again, hanging on ropes and jumping on boulders. We continued at a very slow pace, but the sheer beauty of the Kamakura Valley deserved this laid-back tempo. I didn’t tire and, in my head, the worst that could happen was slipping on a rock and take refreshing fall in the river. If I hadn’t had a minor surgery a few days ago, this was something I’d be doing anyway (as it was, staying out of the water was the better choice to avoid any unwanted infection in my not yet fully healed wound).

We continued hopping and stumbling and had a lunch break on what must be the prettiest point along the river, with an acceleration of the river having shaped all the rocks in the stream into smooth boulders. I felt a bit stupid because I had made other plans later in the day that made me push the others to continue, while I could have stayed here for another hour.
Anyway, at this point we needed to cross the river and climb a little bit up for the first time. This meant the end of the boulder hopping, although there were still a few stretches that required us to hang on ropes to descend a few meters. Again great fun, but also a bit of warming-up for what was to come.

Probably the most climbing we did all day.

We didn't notice it until my friend mistakenly put his hand on it.

Following the river.

Looking for a path.

It was quite strange. Just a few meters after dangling on ropes in an area which seemed cut off from the living world, we passed an abandoned shop followed by a stretch of riverside where kids were playing and people were setting up camp. And right next to that there was another shop – this time in service – and the start of the path towards the Hyakujoiwa peak. Mountain climbers can practice here on the steep rocks and there were quite a few of them doing so. So in what I think wasn’t even a stretch of 500 meters we went from a totally isolated valley to an area that with any sense of exaggeration looked like a theme park. Exaggeration because really, at not a single point did the hike feel crowded. Hey, the five of us were probably the biggest group there.

The climb up to Hyakujoiwa was a short but very steep one where we again had to use the help of ropes and chains to go up the bright sandstones. The change of terrain from a boulderous, densely vegetated valley to this exposed, bright sandstone hill, again in just a few hundred meters, baffled me once more.
The ropes and chains made it fun, the view at the top made it worthwhile. Hyakujoiwa is an impressive piece of rocky nature, with the rolling green hills of Hyogo Prefecture as a beautiful backdrop.
From here we dropped again one stretch of ropes from which the path towards the station was easy going. On our second stroll through the rice paddies the clouds which protected us from too much heat made way for a beautiful blue sky, as if to congratulate us on a day well spent.

For your information, should you want to try this hike.
For someone of my level of fitness and experience – which I both consider to be a bit above medium – I had no problems with this hike at any point. I didn’t feel tired nor did I think the path was too dangerous. For some less fit members in my group though, the continuous boulder hopping was very tiresome. They did stress though that although it was tiresome, it was also very much fun and they’d want to do this kind of adventurous hikes more often.
Another member of the group with a better level of fitness didn’t mind the ropes and chains, but did express some anxiety at the slippery underground.